Warriors’ Draymond Green offers blunt assessment after loss to Nuggets: ‘Our defense sucks’

DENVER — As Draymond Green described another one of his team’s lackadaisical early-season performances late Friday night, he did so with an uncharacteristically low and quiet voice that cut with precision in its bluntness.

The proud emotional leader of a proud organization sat in front of a table in a small news conference room and offered the sharpest critique of the Golden State Warriors’ season to date after an uncompetitive 129-104 loss to the Denver Nuggets.

“Our defense sucks,” Green said. “And we’re 5-5. And they go hand in hand.”

Green has long been the most opinionated Warrior, but when he gets rolling after a game, especially a bad loss, he’s the most honest of his teammates. If you want to know where the Warriors stand or what the locker-room temperature is, Green is often the most accurate diagnostician. That was the case again after the group’s fourth loss in five games.

Playing without Stephen Curry (cold) and Al Horford (foot), the Warriors got blitzed from the beginning of the game. Aside from a short stretch in the second quarter when they almost climbed their way out of a 14-point hole, Steve Kerr’s group got outclassed from beginning to end by a Nuggets team that has a player whom Kerr (and many others) believe is the best in the game: Nikola Jokić.

“Just a lack of purpose and energy,” Kerr said. “Really, right from the start. Competitive fire, connection, a competitive edge, we didn’t have it.”

Aside from the defense, which had some decent moments over the first couple of weeks of the season, the most significant collective problem for the Warriors is the lack of consistent energy. It’s what Green, Kerr and forward Jimmy Butler all hit on during their postgame comments. Why do the Warriors continue to go through so many ups and downs in trying to find consistency in that department?

Nobody seems to have that answer at the moment.

The Nuggets, who the Warriors beat in an overtime thriller in the home opener a few weeks ago, but feel much longer given the Warriors’ recent play, have a legitimate shot at a championship.

Curry had to put on the type of performance that only he can to grab that win at Chase Center — without him, the Warriors don’t have much of a chance against this group, especially when the Nuggets go 16 for 33 from beyond the arc as they did on Friday night.

The issue is that Friday’s effort looked very similar to how the Warriors performed in losses last week against a Giannis-less Milwaukee Bucks team and an injury-riddled Indiana Pacers team. Notably, Butler went out of his way to praise the way Kerr and the coaching staff have prepared the group — he said it was up to the players to play harder.

“You can’t even point the blame on them because they put us in a position to be hella successful,” Butler said. “It’s on us to go out there and execute. It’s on us to go out there and play hard as hell. It’s on us to go out there and actually compete and win.”

For Green, the defensive issues are multifaceted. He doesn’t believe that the group is taking one-on-one matchups personally. He doesn’t think they’re playing strong help-side defense. He doesn’t believe they’re on a string as a group. When asked if he had made those messages apparent to the rest of his teammates, Green tried to fall on the sword.

“I’ve failed,” he said. “If our defense looks as sh—- as it does, I’ve failed. So you can send as many messages as you want, until we do it, I’m failing at it.”

The more alarming issue for the Warriors as they get set for another game against the Pacers on Sunday, before a rough six-game road trip, is that young players Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody struggled on Friday, shooting just 7 of 29 from the field amidst the team-wide defensive malaise.

When asked about the trio’s struggles, Kerr and Green hit on a similar theme.

“There has to be some fire in the belly to get out of a tough night,” Kerr said. “It’s tough as a young player when things aren’t going their way, the game’s not going their way, it’s easy to get down. You can’t do that in this league. You have to fight and compete every second, and it didn’t feel like we did that tonight.”

Green said he felt the young players “have a responsibility to bring energy.” He relayed confidence that all three would have better nights and could turn things around quickly. What was interesting about his answer to the question was his mention of Kuminga.

After a solid first couple of weeks of the season — one that pushed Kerr to announce he would be in the starting lineup moving forward — Kuminga has tailed off over the last week, bringing the same level of consistency. He has 11 turnovers in his last three games and hasn’t found the same rhythm he had early.

“This is the first time JK has played this amount of minutes,” Green said. “Our schedule — it’s been complete sh–. And you’re playing the amount of minutes you’re playing, you’re being relied on night in and night out, and you’re playing more games in the amount of days that you’ve ever played. So it’s a whirlwind. I’m sure his head’s spinning. But A) this is what he wanted and B) he’s cut out for it.

“And we know he’s cut out for it. So he’ll be better. Moses has been good; he had a rough night tonight, and BP will be better, but it’s going to require them to play with more energy and effort.”

What was also notable after this latest setback was Kerr’s acknowledgement that he is still trying to find the right rotation combinations. He has said throughout the early part of the season that it usually takes about 20 games for a group to get everything set in place rotationally. Still, the recent string of poor performances is going to leave someone on the outside looking in.

There isn’t panic yet, but the frustration grows a little deeper when games continue to look like they did on Friday.

“I like this team a lot,” Kerr said. “I like our talent. I like our depth. We obviously need to get Steph back. But I think the biggest thing going forward will just be trying to develop regular rotation patterns and trying to find combinations that work.”

Obviously, Curry can fix plenty of what ails this group. His magnetism on the floor will open up more space and create opportunities for the rest of his teammates. So will his unique offensive skill set. However, if the Warriors don’t start finding ways to stoke the group’s collective fire more during the long regular season, there are only so many things Curry’s magic can cover up.

This iteration of the Warriors is still looking for its identity. Green knows what he wants it to be — but if they keep having games like they have recently, like they had Friday night, they won’t be able to shake the label they’ve earned to this point: An inconsistent group that isn’t sure how hard it is going to play night to night.

“I think we need to be a hard-playing team,” Green said. “We need to be great on the defensive end and we need to be hard-playing. If those two things happen, everything else falls into place. But we must be a high-energy, high-effort team and we must be a great defensive team.

“If we can’t reach those milestones, we don’t stand a chance.”